Apple: Elstar

[redbird]

adrian_turtle bought some Elstar apples at the farmers' market on Wednesday, and I got to taste one yesterday. Ie was sweet, crisp, and a little tart. It's a good early-season apple (much like the zestar I tried almost exactly a year ago) The Orange Pippin fruit website describes it as "one of the best Golden Delicious offspring"; I wouldn't have guessed that ancestry from Elstar's flavor, texture, or appearance. It doesn't appear to be related to zestar*, despite both being good early-season apples and having similar names and appearances (the peel is a mix of pale red and green).

*except in the sense that any two domestic apple cultivars are more closely related to each other than either is to a pear, or a poodle

Comments

[ranunculus]

Last year I learned that I wasn't leaving my apples on the tree long enough. They are Sierra Beauty, a mid/late season apple. I happily picked apples that were apparently ripe in late Sept. They were ok, but disapointingly bland. In fact I wondered why I had really liked them in the past. A month later they were amazing, crisp, tart and full of flavour.

[ranunculus]

P.S. A Sierra Beauty is a branch of the Orange Pippin family.

[redbird]

*nod* This is why I don't usually get the "early Macintosh" that can turn up at the farmers market in mid-August next to Lodi, Gingergold, or Vista Bella.